Illinois to businesses: Please, please stay here
David Mercer of the Associated Press has a nice piece on how Illinois has increased the number of tax breaks it gave companies last year in order to keep their headquarters in the state. “Illinois’ government agreed last year to give $272.7 million in tax breaks and other incentives to 67 companies that had invitations from other states to move jobs elsewhere,” Mercer reports. This quadruples the amount of such incentives given to businesses in 2006 and it translates to about $17,000 in taxpayer money for each job kept in the state. Government subsidized jobs are arguably a less expensive strategy to combat unemployment.